"We assume that advanced Yakhont missiles have also reached the hands of
Hezbollah, and we are preparing for that," Rear Adm. Eli Sharvit,
commander of the naval base in Haifa, said.

The Israeli officers
said Hezbollah deployed Yakhont in 2013 about a year after the Syrian
Navy received the P-800. They said repeated Israeli efforts to block the
delivery of the weapon from Syria to Lebanon were partially successful.

"Hezbollah
is a highly functional organization, active in its sector," Sharvit
told a briefing on Feb. 25. "It continues to arm itself with strategic
weapons, and has not stopped trying to get its hands on weapons that
will influence [future warfare]."

The officers said the navy was
being trained and equipped to foil the Hezbollah or Syrian missile
threat against Israel. They said Hezbollah could use Yakhont to attack
Israel's new natural gas facilities in the eastern Mediterranean. Add
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